12 Jul 2012

4* HOTELS

Good travel agencies always propose 4* hotels when you go to Egypt, Morocco, or Tunisia and for a very democratic price. Our Hotels in the Western world like the Hiltons, Ritzs, Waldorfs, or Conrads look like garden sheds compared to the hotels you see in the above mentioned countries. An exception could be Las Vegas, but there everything is fake.

They all look like palaces out of "One Thousand and One Nights". Entrance/reception halls like big city train stations, with marble colons, beautiful tiles, mosaic, lots of golden decoration and you stand there with an open mouth when you see them for the first time. There are beautiful paintings, stuck wall decorations, wide staircases just like in the Titanic and lots of beautiful decorations and flower arrangements everywhere. A delight for your eyes.

These are some hotels where I stayed during my holidays in Morocco, Egypt and Tunisia.

And when you look up to the ceilings or down to the marble floors, you still want to pinch yourself to check out if you are not dreaming !

But then comes the surprise when you get your room. Usually the rooms have a good size, with elegant furniture, comfortable seats but ....

as soon as you sit down in the comfy looking armchair, you find yourself sitting on the ground, because one leg of the chair just switches aside or even breaks. Somtimes the electric wires hang unprotected out of the wall and if you don't want to play "electric chair" better pay attention and don't touch them. If you claim they promise to repair it immediately, but immediately means that it is not yet done on the day you leave.

It was not the first time that under my elephant like weight the bed broke and I found myself sitting on the floor with the bedsheets artistically draped around my neck. We also had a nice toilet separated from the bathroom and when you took a shower, the one who sat peacefully on the throne of the toilet, suddenly had water until the ankles. Or when opening a wardrobe pay attention that not all shelves suddenly fell on the ground with a terrible noise causing you a shock.

That a painting dropped from the wall and you just could safe your head, or you fell over a hole in the beautiful oriental carpet becomes normal.

The beautiful lamps or chandeliers have a strange system sometimes, or you sit in a complete darkness when you switch off one light, or half of them are not working and perhaps are only there for decoration. The Electrician has a lot of phantasy.

The rooms were always clean I have to say but you quickly learn to ask for more toilet paper, hide it in the wardrobe and ask for more the next day, because otherwise you run short, as it is often not replaced. The beds sometimes have mattresses which probably dates from Roman times. Either you sit in a hole or you sleep on a wide plank. I experienced lots of adventures of this kind, useless to get unnerved, take it with humor !

But once out of your room you are again in a Palace and feel like a queen.

14 comments:

Ha ha Gattina, apparently you're not supposed to sleep when you're on vacation there -- just sit in the lobby and marvel ;>) (Just kidding, if I don't get my sleep I wouldn't even be able to see the lobby!)

lolWe always check the room before taking it.It is not pleasant to travel anymore with all the security and what not.We had rooms with no TV, no air con.No locking doors. Depending on where we go I take my own pillow cases and sheets just in case lolToday you just never know. It all looks spectacular on the advertising lol

It sounds like you had some interesting adventures at those hotels. I'm glad you survived to share it here. Were the public spaces worth the relatively inadequate rooms, or would you prefer less elaborate lobbies and more comfortable rooms?

I just returned from a trip to London where I stayed at a 5 star hotel--The May Fair. It was an opposite experience. The public areas were pretty blah. The room was pretty, but nothing exceptional. I could understand a four-star rating, but not a five. After I was there for a couple of days, I began to notice the things that made the room extra special--the heated towel racks, the extreme comfort of the bed and room, the amazing showers, etc.

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About Me

I love painting, writing, travelling and photography. My favorit models are my four cats which I observe with fun and humor. I am German, married to an Italian and we live in Waterloo (15 km from Brussels) / Belgium since many years. Waterloo is a famous place to many tourists, because Napoleon lost his battle here against Wellington and other European countries.